TERRIBLE

Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 14-15

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

Here is a modern building in the Old City of Jerusalem made with the same type of stone that the ancients used to build Jerusalem. This is the Aish Hatorah World Centre, built by the Dan family of Canada. On top of this building, encased in glass, is a replica model of the Temple that once sat upon the Temple Mount. The history of Jerusalem is “terrible.” It has been destroyed and rebuilt more times than any other city on earth.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Jeremiah 15:21b

I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.

The word “terrible” refers to that which causes TERROR! We’re all familiar with that word and with the Satan-inspired evil of terrorism. Jerusalem suffered from lack of rain and from attacks by its enemies in the years prior to its total destruction by the Babylonian (Iraq) army. The people were terrorized and yet they did not turn with all their hearts to the true and living God. Jeremiah refused to cease his prayers of intercession for his people. He prayed, “Are You not He, O Lord our God? Therefore, we will wait for You!” In spite of what Jeremiah calls, “the grip of the terrible,” he adamantly refuses to give up on God!

Chapter 14 tells us of those claiming to be prophets who speak lies using God’s Name. Contrast this with Jeremiah, God’s true spokesperson. God’s person, when God’s Word is read, “eats the book!” (Jeremiah 15:16). The man or woman of God inwardly digests God’s book! We are doing this daily here in this blog. The result is, as Jeremiah experienced, “Joy and rejoicing of my heart!”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, just as Jeremiah refused to give up his preaching of Your Word, so I pray that I will never give up sharing Your Word in every possible way. Teach me, O Lord, to be more effective in intercessory prayer, waiting in faith for Your deliverance from “the grip of the terrible!” I pray this in the Name of the greatest Intercessor, Jesus Christ, Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I’ve just read the intercessory prayer of Jesus (John 17:1-26). Jesus, in His life and death on the Cross, experienced the greatest and most “terrible” disaster possible, and He accomplished redemption. The word “mortgage” means “death” (mort) “grip” (gage). According to the dictionary, the word “redemption” means “the act of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment.” The word “redemption” comes to us in the English language from Latin and literally means “buy back.” Ever heard of Ivan the Terrible, Czar of Russia? He built St. Bazil’s Cathedral to celebrate his victory over the Muslim Tartars (picture below). He made England’s Henry VIII look good. Ivan was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church, but he was so “religious” (like many in Jeremiah’s day) that he made a hole in the wall of the church and would stand outside in below zero weather for two hours each Sunday morning, so he could still observe the service inside. His wife and children were only allowed to sit in the balcony.

Yours for God’s deliverance from dead, religious observance and for the reality of the experience described by Jeremiah, “Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16b),

David

St. Bazil’s Cathedral, Moscow, in the winter.

An artist’s depiction of Ivan the Terrible.